▲ Police conduct intensive search for missing person three months after disappearance
Following allegations that an assigned police officer falsely closed a missing person case in Jeju without verifying safety, the police are introducing a supervisor approval procedure to prevent officers from closing missing person cases independently in the computer system.
The Korean National Police Agency is currently working on improvements to the Missing Person Profiling System.
A dual-layer safeguard is being established where, when an assigned police officer requests to close a missing person case, a supervisor such as a team leader or division head must review the entered information before the case can be finally closed.
Currently, even if reported through a supervisor, the system allows the assigned officer to independently process the closure of a missing person case.
This specific system vulnerability was also what sparked suspicions regarding the case handling procedure at the time of the initial report last May, surrounding the long-term disappearance of 37-year-old Jang Mi-ran in Jeju.
Suspicions have been raised that Police Inspector A, who received the initial report as a night-shift worker last May, may have filed a false report stating that they "spoke with Jang" and closed the case.
Moving forward, the police plan to require that when an assigned officer requests a case closure, a supervisor must re-verify whether the reason for closure and the entered information match the actual reported details before granting approval.
The police aim to complete the system upgrades within about a month.
The Missing Person Profiling System was introduced in 2011 to consolidate missing person-related information in one place and support missing person investigations.
It is used by police officers in charge of related tasks, such as missing person investigation teams at police stations, to check past report and discovery histories of missing persons and enter related information.
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